Tempers flare before Bali suitcase murder trial

Sep. 2, 2014
|

epa04352859 A picture made available 14 August 2014 shows an Indonesia police officer with a blood covered suitcase, in which the body of US woman Sheila von Wiese Mack was found in, at a police station in Nusadua, Bali, Indonesia, 13 August 2014. Indonesian police have arrested Heather Louis Mack, daughter of the victim and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer. The body of Sheila von Wiese Mack, 62, was found on 12 August in a blood-stained suitcase left in a taxi outside a luxury hotel in the Kuta, Bali, area where the three had stayed. Police arrested the woman's daughter, identified as Heather Mack, and her 21-year-old boyfriend in a different hotel on 13 August 2014. EPA/ANTA KESUMA / ANTA KESUMA EPA

by Hal Foster, Special for USA TODAY

by Hal Foster, Special for USA TODAY

BALI, Indonesia - By many accounts, 19-year-old Heather Mack had an explosive temper that she often took out on her mother, Sheila von Weise Mack.

Some of those outbursts in their Chicago suburb home led to attacks so savage they left the 62-year-old mother with broken bones, police said. Two weeks ago, Sheila Mack's body was found stuffed in a suitcase on this resort island, a gruesome discovery that spawned international headlines.

Now, Heather Mack, who is two months pregnant, and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, are in jail here in connection with the Aug. 12 bludgeoning death of Sheila Mack in a posh hotel room in Bali.

Police in Oak Park, Ill., west of Chicago, said they made 86 calls to the Macks' home for a variety of reasons - domestic disturbance, missing person, credit card theft and other issues - between 2004, when Heather was 10, and June 2013. On one call, in 2011, Heather Mack was arrested on suspicion of knocking her mother to the floor and breaking her arm. Sheila Mack declined to press charges.

Laura Voigt, a family friend in Oak Park, said she remembers seeing the mother and daughter arguing outside Heather Mack's high school. "I was worried about Sheila," Voigt told Reuters.

Schaefer, who graduated from the same high school as Heather Mack two years before her, had minor scrapes with the law. The aspiring rap singer was convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2011, the year he graduated, and three weeks before going to Bali he was arrested for disorderly conduct.

The arrest came when Sheila Mack complained on June 23 that someone was using one of her credit cards at a ritzy Chicago hotel. Police found Heather Mack and Schaefer in a hotel room throwing a party for friends. They arrested Schaefer when he "began getting loud and waving arms," according to the police report.

In Bali, Heather Mack and Schaefer told local police that an armed gang had killed Sheila Mack, while they had managed to escape. The police chief in Bali's capital of Denpasar, Djoko Hari Utomo, said that account is "inconsistent with the facts we found at the scene."

According to a Bali coroner, Ida Bagus Putu Alit, Sheila Mack's injuries included a broken nose and neck. Her shattered nose blocked her windpipe, causing her death, Alit said.

Police said a heavy ashtray and vase, both found broken in her hotel room, were slammed into the victim's face and head. Bloody fingerprints were found on the ashtray, vase and suitcase, but police have not said publicly whose prints they are.

Heather Mack has been less than a model inmate, police said.

Her complaints about the meals prompted police to buy American fast food for her and Schaefer. But when they were given KFC fried chicken, the two accused police of racist stereotyping.

Sheila Mack was white, and her husband - composer and arranger James Mack, who died in 2006 - was black.

Bali police said the racism allegation surprised them, since few Indonesians can even afford a KFC meal. The two prisoners now receive food from McDonald's.

Given the global spotlight on the case, Djoko said police are being extra careful about how the suspects are treated.

Bali Police Chief Benny Mokalu said the motive for the killing is unknown. There are indications it might have stemmed from one of Heather Mack's temper fits.

The Macks and Schaefer had a heated argument in the lobby of their hotel, the St. Regis, on the day Sheila Mack died, hotel staff told investigators, Djoko confirmed. Hotel security cameras also show the three arguing.

The disagreement was over the mother's contention that since she had paid for Schaefer's airfare to Bali, the couple should cover the cost for his hotel room, Djoko said the staff told police.

The Macks arrived in Bali on Aug. 4; Schaefer on Aug. 11. Sheila Mack was killed the next day.

Heather Mack and Schaefer face the death penalty or a firing squad if convicted of planning her mother's death. If found guilty of an unpremeditated, heat-of-passion killing, they could be sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The couple will have to testify at their trial. Indonesian law requires defendants to answer questions from the prosecutor, defense attorney and the three presiding judges who will decide the verdict. Indonesia has no jury system.